Reports of lionfish in the Atlantic started to filter out of Florida in the early 90s. Several aquarium lionfish are known to have escaped into Biscayne Bay, Florida during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. At least anecdotally, aquarists have also intentionally released these non-native fish into Florida waters. But even taking into account these releases, nobody was prepared to find a healthy population of reproducing lionfish living in the Atlantic at the outset of the twenty-first century.